My grandfather, Gordon 'Roy' Shearing, died today. It's weird to type those words, even when you know they're coming. He was my last surviving grandparent and at the age of 87, with rapidly failing health, it was expected - though I remember the words Joss Whedon used in one of the finest hours on television on the subject, that death is ALWAYS sudden too.


He lived a life less ordinary, living in places as different as Leeds, The Bahamas and Southamption, before spending most of of the latter half of his life in Coventry. His son - my mum's brother, David Shearing - was a respected leader writer for several UK papers and certainly one of the reasons I segued into that business myself.

He was a complex person, but he was also a character - as delightful, benevolent and flawed as anyone you'd care to meet. And it's hard for me to imagine no longer picking up the phone to one of his frequent phone calls, though I think he'll already be wondering if he can get call-coverage up there.

Sleep well, you've earned it.

Within forty-eight hours of getting back from America, I was headlong into my brother's wedding. Headlong is an apt description as though I'd spent much of that forty-eight hours trying to adjust my body-clock, I was still feeling a bit off balance - and that was before any of the alcohol.

Yes, the final leg of the trip was New York, a place I'd always wanted to visit but never had the opportunity to before. Thanks to a very good price on an arrive-LAX & depart-JFK flight and the fact that my HLWW associate Camille (and her husband Steve) had graciously offered to let me stay with them in New Jersey, the opportunity was now here - even though it was a small window of opportunity.

I arrived at La Guardia later than originally planned on Monday afternoon and was scheduled to fly out back to the UK on the Wednesday evening. I caught a bus/shuttle from the airport to Grand Central Station (remember Terry Gilliam's Fisher King commuter-dancers?). Making contact with Camille and Steve, they arranged to pick me up just south of Times Square, so suitcase in hand - and arm almost out of socket - I trundled along doing the first part of my sight-seeing. With luggage deposited in boot/trunk, we headed to Little Italy and delicious food (ravioli with the piping hot sauce actually proving NOT to blow my ears out in hysterical cartoon fashion and proving VERY tasty!)

The following day Steve dropped me in Manhattan around 9:00 as he headed off for business appointments and we arranged to meet again around 5:00pm or so. So I made the most of the day and started off at the Empire State Building. After standing in line for about an hour I made it to the top and the legendary spectacular views of the city. I bought Big Apple souvenirs there and smiled at the irony that I couldn't get a cell-phone signal. Then I headed down broadway and back up, taking in SoHo, The Village, Ground Zero, Union Station and many shops.

I was tempted to also visit the Statue of Liberty, but the queues just to get to the Statten Island Ferry looked to be several hours wait and so that was pencilled in for another time.

My heatwave powers were still operating at full-force and it was interesting to see how different a sunny New York looked from the shades of grey I'd expected from watching far too many Law & Order spin-offs. It was a relatively clean city, fast-paced but pretty friendly. I felt safe and welcomed and would recommend a visit to anyone.

I met up with Steve and a couple of his friends around 6:00 and then we both headed back to New Jersey for another meal out with Camille and her brother too. It was great to be treated to their fantastic Italian-style hospitality and it was just a shame I didn't have longer. The following morning (with temperatures up from mid 80s to mid 90s!) Steve dropped me at the local station and I headed back into Manhattan. Annoyingly the suitcase wheel (which admittedly had weathered a lot) developed a wobble and so I probably pulled a few more muscles in my arm as I went to meet the shuttle to the airport. However I made it intact, checked in with relative ease and gladly settled back to wait for the boarding call. I collapsed into my seat on the plane and drifted off for a few minutes of the six hour flight...and before I knew it was back in the UK.

Peh.

After the Rockies there were still plenty of treats, a professional massage as a birthday treat - everyone should have those regularly: verrrrrry relaaaaaaxing - food with Holly's friends and then back to Kit and Ariel's so that I could be close to the airport for an early start to my next port of call. I took off from Denver at about 7:30am and flying thru Dallas Fort Worth up and across to Columbus (which meant changing my watch twice in two, er, three hours). But oh me-o, oh-my-o, Columbus Ohio was warm (even at night, see apic above). Heatwave: 80 degress +. I'm obviously a lightning rod for... well, lack of lightning.

Leg two of my trip took me to Denver. Heatwave: 80 degrees. My friend Kit (whose wedding I attended in Biarritz last year) was getting ready to graduate from law school. As I'd promised/threatened to visit them - and Kit's cousin Holly - on my next viable trip, it seemed that this was the best opportunity and though it was mainly a family gathering, I was made to feel welcome (and, after all, I had met most of the family last year!). Holly and I were drafted in to help set up the picnic in the park and by the time everyone arrived we'd comandeered some more helpful hands and the afternoon went well. Where else in the world can you get lawyers, hot-dogs and blow-up monkeys? (On second thoughts, don't answer that question). Given the weather, it was my idea to grab some water-pistols to entertain the kids. As usually happens, it was the adults that had the most fun with those!

Kit and Ariel headed off to Vegas for a few days celebration, so Holly had arranged to show me the sights, sounds, smells and skyline of Denver. She did a great job. Downtown Denver reminds me of Manchester could be like if it was clean, tidy, more welcoming and hotter. The restaurants are full or great aromas and friendly service. Come Monday and it was off to the Rocky Mountains - about an hour's drive. Holly had told me we'd be going camping, but while tents would have been an experience, I was happy to know we'd have the use of a Nash camping van. The camping ground, near Red Feather Lake was just... amazing. The landscape was breath-taking and the wildlife were out in force. ( "Ooooh, look a bear!" - "That's a chipmunk, John..." - "It's a bloody large chipmunk!" ).

At night we lit a campfire and I pretended to be a hunter / gatherer with all the mustering that a writer / ditherer could muster. Living in a city, you tend to forget how quiet the rural areas are and this was a welcome break from the traffic, smog and rat-race. It was wonderful to listen to the silence that you just don't get with the ambient noise of a city. Later, with 'Somewhere over the Rainbow...' playing quietly on the music system, the moon rising through the sky and a only-slight chill to the higher altitude weather, it was a perfect ending to a perfect day.